Age 52, weight 25 stone. Counting calories, goal 20 stone

366to266

Wanna lose 100lb
Been struggling with weight all adult life, forever on and off diets. Started trying to lose weight when I hit 15 stone, 33 years ago.

Last August weighed 26 stone 1 lb (365 lb hence my name desperate360)

Chocaholic, emotional eater, habitual overeater, hedonistic eater, habitually eat when not hungry. Willpower and self-discipline come in bursts, I lose a few pounds, then they both desert me and I slip back into my usual overeating ways.

Hypoglycaemic, also have hyperinsulinism and PCOS, and menopause. Must avoid wheat, caffeine, artificial sweeteners. Ideal diet Atkins. Am habituated to living without grains/sugar/rice/potatoes; however, weaken almost daily and eat chocolate.

Did zero carb, meat only diet for 4 months Aug-Nov, lost a stone but regained 3lbs.

Net loss 11lb.

Last time I weighed, in November, I was 25 stone 4.

Since then, been off the rails quite often. Holidays, Christmas, Chinese takeaways, Indian restaurants, fish n chips, cake, crisps, and a humungous quantity of chocolate. 100g most days.

Added to that, I stopped going to the swimming pool (my only exercise) and have been I think twice this year. My membership ran out in January and I didn't renew.

In the six months since I last weighed in, I have become increasingly frightened to weigh myself. I've been feeling heavier, more sluggish, can walk less distance than I could even in March. It got to the point where I thought, if I weigh myself and find that I have re-gained the stone that it took me 4 mths to lose, and have gained more on top, I might become suicidal.

A few weeks back I stocked up on meat again intending to restart the meat-only diet, but found that I am so addicted to chocolate that I just could not give it up. I tried again and again, to no avail.

Thing is, if I cannot give up the sugar (ie chocolate) then I must not eat a high fat diet, because the two together are a deadly (literally) combination. I like the high fat sugarfree diet, my body really thrives on it. However, a few days ago, after wolfing down TWO x 100g bars of Swiss Milka (1066 calories!) I realised that I would never, ever be able to give choc up, so I decided to build a new type of diet that could incorporate SOME chocolate in it.

And so my new daily diet consists of counting calories and limiting myself to between 1,000 and 1,500 a day. And it is based around eating the following:

One, two or three cup-a-soups (about 80 calories each)
4 oz chopped cooked chicken or pork added to the soups to give protein (300 calories)
Prawns and salad with fat free or very small amount of fat as a dressing. (300 calories)
One fun size Mars Bar or similar per day for about 80 calories. [If desperate, can have two bars.]
Occasionally a chilled or frozen ready Weightwatchers meal for about 300-400 calories.
An apple or pear etc (80 calories)
Various vitamin pills

To get fitter, I also today paid a year's pool membership in advance, so working with water weights, aqua fit and swimming lengths will again become part of my life.

Lastly, plenty of early nights, sleep and rest.

=====================================

Progress so far:

Wednesday 19th -- cup a soup, chocolate, prawn salad--- 1,000 calories. Not hungry but stomach rumbling.
Long walk around supermarket

Thursday 20th -- an apple, cup a soup, Mini Mars, one bite of boyfriend's chocolate bar, prawn salad and 8oz ham offcuts. total under 1300 cals.
Not hungry in mouth, but stomach rumbling v loudly!

One hour water weights in the pool
Walked one mile home
A bit of wriggling about during sex (LOL --it all counts as exercise!)

Forgot the vitamins both days .... grrr!
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I was forced to pluck up the courage to weigh myself at the pool this morning because, obviously, I need to know my "start" weight in order to see if there is going to be any progress. My heart really sank as I stood on the scale. I felt so bad about myself that I could not even remove my blouse, vest or denim skirt (I normally weigh in just a swimsuit). I had butterflies as I waited for the machine to go through its processes and print my weight ..... a horrible, sinking feeling.

Well, I was absolutely thrilled to bits to find that ... wait for it! .... not only have I MAINTAINED the weight I lost last autumn, but I have dropped a further 2 lb, plus I guess we have to subtract another 2 lb for all the clothes I was wearing. My weight on the printout was 25 stone 2, so I guess my real weight is 25 stone.

I felt incredibly HAPPY and was really cock-a-hoop in the pool. I feel my new regime has been given a kick-start because I don't have to go through the painful process of RE-losing the same stone I lost last year.

So I guess that, despite all the bad stuff I have eaten over the last six months, I must have been "good" for quite a lot of the time, to not regain what I'd lost.

My main thoughts are:

1. to get the most food for the least calories

2. to keep going to the pool

3. keep reminding self to drink more

4. don't forget the vitamins

How to slim is the cause of many passionate arguments. Whichever diet one follows, someone will throw their arms up in horror and entreat one NOT to follow it. Magazines, doctors, dieticians and successful losers all contradict each other and issue dire warnings.

And yet the bottom line is, we each have to find something that is sustainable, that we as individuals can keep up minute by minute, month by month. I'm not saying that I will keep up this diet forever. I just want to lose five stones. Then I will see where I go from there.

The best help anyone can give me right now is:

1. tips for quick and easy foods to eat to give the biggest bulk for the fewest wheat and sugar free calories. Until I have learned to control portions, I particularly want tips on packeted foods because they are portion controlled

2. tips on how to make fat free food taste GOOD to someone habituated to a lot of fats, oils, mayo, butter etc. How to make chicken breast palatable?
 
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Hello i just wanted to say that you will loose the weight, my friend who joined weight watchers May last year, weighting 26 stone and today she is 19 stone.!

All that weight gone in one year.!! she rang me last week satday crying of joy.!!

Keep at it i would say position control is vitual.!

Good luck xx
 
Hey hey and welcome to Minimins :)

Sounds like your really determined I find the hardest thing is keeping the motivation and find its too easy to give up.

I also try to watch fats and calories, have you considered going to the doctors and asking about Xenical or any other assistance?

There are loads of low calorie options but its just finding them, I got into having Butternut squash - you can roast them and they are a mix between parsnips and potatoes and VERY low calorie, also having a plate full of rice and baked beans.... now I know that doesnt sound tasty or exciting but its got good fibre and is around 300 cal's and VERY filling... Always stack up on veg, you can reduce the fatty foods and increase the veg so still get a big dinner but of stuff that wont affect you so much, I tend to have half a chicken breast just to keep more calories free :)

Some love them and some dont agree but I find cereal bars great for snacks/breakfast and can be less than 100 cal's... My favorite is the Kelloggs choc chip they do taste naughty but at 82/83 calories Im not complaining.

best of luck with it

xxxx
 
Thanks ladies for the welcome, the encouragement, sharing your tips.

Congrats on your weight loss, too.

I don't eat grains, especially wheat or sugar or rice or beans, but boy do I love butternut squash. I find it a total pain to peel and cut up, though, and dare not trust myself on portion control, so it's bnut soup only for me at the moment!
 
Thanks ladies for the welcome, the encouragement, sharing your tips.

Congrats on your weight loss, too.

I don't eat grains, especially wheat or sugar or rice or beans, but boy do I love butternut squash. I find it a total pain to peel and cut up, though, and dare not trust myself on portion control, so it's bnut soup only for me at the moment!

Fair enough, just keep your eyes peeled as Im sure you will find somethings you love that will be low in calories :)

I also agree, butternut squash is a real pain to get into hee hee
 
Biggest challenge is to transform from having the feeling of being full up all the time (which I am used to, find comforting and lovely) to feeling empty and slightly hungry (which I find unsettling, and even a bit scary) most of the time.

One thing that's made me so overweight is my habitual avoidance of ever feeling hunger. I hate the feeling so much that I avoid it by eating too much and too often.

So I'm lying in bed, stomach rumbling, almost screaming with hunger, just feeling what this feeling feels like, and how I feel about it.
 
Biggest challenge is to transform from having the feeling of being full up all the time (which I am used to, find comforting and lovely) to feeling empty and slightly hungry (which I find unsettling, and even a bit scary) most of the time.

One thing that's made me so overweight is my habitual avoidance of ever feeling hunger. I hate the feeling so much that I avoid it by eating too much and too often.

So I'm lying in bed, stomach rumbling, almost screaming with hunger, just feeling what this feeling feels like, and how I feel about it.

Honestly after a few days of the rumbling tummy it does get better, I also used to eat as soon as I had the tiniest of grumbles and when I was trying to break through it, the grumble's could be quite painful, but it does calm down and eventually you know when you need to eat rather than eating for the sake of it.

You can do this :)
 
Best of luck to you with your weight loss :) I agree with what Nee said about vegetables being low in calories but really filling- I often buy frozen mixed vegetables, really easy to cook in a pan for just a few minutes, and lovely and filling. I'm always surprised how much I can have for just say 100 calories :) Low calorie soup can be a great way to fill up too :)
 
Hi Desperate 360, Wow, it was just like reading my own life story. The trick is to not give up. Find a diet that works for you and if that stops working find another. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different diet/eating plans out there so you're not going to run out any time soon. "You only fail when you give up trying"- good luck hun and congrats on your weight loss so far.
 
Good luck, you can do this! I have alot of weight to lose too, I started off at 25 stones 4lbs in Jan and now I am 21 stones 9lbs ... not much really but I will get there :) and I know what you mean about the hunger pains sometimes :( wish you all the best x
 
You keep going, it WILL get easier honestly. I only (re)started my own weight loss journey last week, and in my first week it felt like hell. Still does if I am honest, but each day my tummy feels less empty and more like its getting used to what it is having. not only that, but I lost 8.5lb in my first week, if I can do that anyone can. Trust me!!

BTW, trying dry roasting the butternut squash, skin on, then peel. much easier!!

Good luck!!
 
Well done on your great start and obvious determination. Come here often to seek support - I know it was my saviour at difficult moments. I have insulin resistance which developed into type II diabetes ... I guess this is a similar problem to you. I CANNOT fill up on starchy carbs at all as I simply can't lose weight eating them.

I'm currently back on Cambridge as that has worked for me in the past - I'm on day three at the moment ... so far so good.
Good luck with your new regime - keep us posted :)
 
Thanks to everyone for posting on my thread.

I've done really well so far!

In fact I am surprised at how EASY I am finding this new regime.

Gonnagetslim you started at the same weight as me. You are three months ahead and I consider that you are walking down the same path as me but you are further ahead. Keep on walking, I am right behind you!

Thanks to everyone, I can feel the love from everyone on this forum, it's a great place to be and I am so happy that I found it!

Thanks again everyone! Next message I will post what I have been eating.
 
(Calories are rounded up to the nearest 10.)

Started diet Weds 19 may

Weds 19 May about 900 calories
Thurs 20 May about 850 calories

Friday 21 May

Cup a soup, ham 150
(cafe) Baked potato w/tuna mayo 400
Milk 150
Milky Way mini and Mars mini 140
Total about 850
----------------------

Saturday 22 May
Baxters cock a leekie soup 100
Tesco braised beef and mash ready meal 360
(despite this, feeling incredibly hungry today)
Muller light yoghurt 100
2 x babybel 80
Mars mini 80
(Still really hungry so decided to splash out and have 1500 cals today)
Tesco chicken jalfrezi 360
Tesco pilau rice 380
Bailey's truffle 60
Weightwatchers Chocolate mousse 100
(at this point I felt absolutely stuffed full and as though I had been picking non stop all day)

Total about 1650

Sunday 23
Prawns 208
Salad 150
Mayo 100 (treat)
Slimfast caramel 100
Activia yoghurt 70

===============================

My cupboards and freezer are now fully stuffed with:

Cup a Soups
Slim a Soups
Low cal tinned soups
Weightwatchers ready meals
Tesco lighter choices ready meals
A bag of prawns
Activia live yoghurts (70 cals)
Babybel light (45 cals)
Bags of mini Mars and Milky Way each one about 80 cals. (Each one is labelled with the day of the week on a post-it. Allowed one a day or two if desperate. I chop the chocolate bars into tiny cubes and eat them really slowly letting them dissolve on my taste buds.)

The plan is, choose anything from these options up to about 1500 calories a day. In practice, so far, as you can see, I've kept to under 900. I'm thinking that if I keep the calories low during the week, then I can "earn" a Saturday night treat such as fish and chips (1200) or Tesco curry and rice like I had last night (720)

I am also taking vitamins.

I am perfectly aware that this diet currently consists of processed junk food.

The main thing for me at the moment is that I cannot trust myself to restrict portions, hence not yet making my own stews or soups (except the butternut squash and carrot soup one that I'm making later today).

I've had a few calories controlled ready meals now, and I must confess they look tiny. If I wasn't dieting, just helping myself out of a cauldron, I'd eat two or three platefuls. So, the chilled meals are really helping to train me what a "single portion" should be and train my stomach what to expect.

I'm not saying this diet is forever. If I can lose five stones I will be ecstatic. Then I can reconsider changing perhaps to Atkins (if I can break the chocolate habit) or South Beach.

But, for now, I have enough processed calorie controlled junk to keep me going for three weeks, till 10th June. Then I will get weighed and see if anything has happened!

Exciting, isn't it?
 
Well done so far, I know what you mean about the processed foods, I rely on Weight Watchers meals sometimes and I do feel guilty but I like how I know exactally how many calories it contains and also portion control to hopefully shrink my stomach and train it to be full for a tiny meal (or 'normal' size meal lol) I could not eat only 900 calories a day though or I would prob end up raiding the fridge for anything I could get my hands on at the end of the day ha! so I am happy just sticking to 1500 or under :) keep up the good work, love the signature :)
 
Hello Gonnagetslim!

You are my inspiration! Three months ahead of me... I am right behind... so never give up will you?

I hope there's nothing wrong with, say, my saving 200 calories a day x 6 = 1200 then splurging that on a Saturday night?

Just eating a Tesco moussaka light choices 230 calories. It's really tasty, but there is not enough of it! Might have another later. I'm only up to 820 so far today.
 
Aww that is so nice of you thank you! I still feel like a beginner, dont feel worthy of being an inspiration to someone so thank you! and NO I will never give up! and hope you dont either but you sound determined :) That is up to up to you, I prefer not to save my calories for a weekend,I dont drink or have take-aways anymore so everyday is the same eating wise for me, but things that work for me wont for others and if you want to have a ''cheat'' day on a Sat that sounds fine to me! Have you tried the WW chicken tikka? that is yum and I bulk it up with veggies if I am really hungry, and the WW desserts are very nice! X
 
Thanks gals!

Gonna - been reading your journal, picking up tips for low cal foods. Will post my thoughts about your diet on there.....

Finished yesterday with

moussaka
cup a soup
ham

making 1200 cals altogether

and did one hour aquafit
 
WW chicken tikka, not sure if I have that in the freezer... I will try to remember next shop. Not going shopping till 10th June.

Today I made my own blended soup with butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato, onion and nutmeg with chicken stock and a tin of tomoatoes. It was OK but nothing to write home about. In fact, it felt like eating baby food! I put some chopped chicken breast in it.

I ate a much bigger portion than I would have done if I'd had a cup a soup instead, not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Also, I don't know what to write down as a calorie count, so, again cup a soup would have been better. So I'm guessing 150 for the soup and 100 for the chicken. 250 cals, it's 11am and I am really hungry again.

Last nights Tesco light choices moussaka was absolutely delicious, but it felt like SUCH a small portion that I could easily have eaten FOUR packs.

I think that, being forced to have such tiny portions, it is a good thing to have a dessert. I signals to me that the meal is over, and the sugar blunts my appetite somewhat.

The Slimfast caramel was heavenly! Next time I am going to cut it into four small choccies, maybe even eight, and eat it even more slowly. I am learning that what is important about chocolate is NOT the amount you eat, but how long you can keep it on your tastebuds, thus "tricking" the body into thinking you've eaten more than you actually have.

The best part of my "Convenience Food Diet" is that everything is calorie counted for me, and there is plenty of choice and variety among the things I have in stock. I can have a chilled meal for say 250 or 300 calories, and I know that IF I get really hungry, I can have another one, and it won't "break the bank" in terms of how many cals I have to "spend" each day.

It really IS like having a cash budget. You become very careful about what you spend, wanting to get the biggest "bang for your buck" you cannot go squandering calories on stuff that doesn't fill or satisfy. I blew 100 calories on mayonnaise yesterday and quite frankly it was a waste. I could have had another mini-Mars or cup a soup for 100 calories! I have told my b/f to buy me some Kraft Light Caesar dressing: 100ml is 95c.
 
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